Yohanes 4:27-28

The Disciples Return

4:27 Now at that very moment his disciples came back. ¹  They were shocked ²  because he was speaking ³  with a woman. However, no one said, “What do you want?” ⁴  or “Why are you speaking with her?” 4:28 Then the woman left her water jar, went off into the town and said to the people, ⁵ 

Yohanes 11:1-2

The Death of Lazarus

11:1 Now a certain man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village where Mary and her sister Martha lived. ⁶  11:2 (Now it was Mary who anointed the Lord with perfumed oil ⁷  and wiped his feet dry with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.) ⁸ 

Yohanes 11:4-5

11:4 When Jesus heard this, he said, “This sickness will not lead to death, ⁹  but to God’s glory, ¹⁰  so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” ¹¹  11:5 (Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.) ¹² 

Yohanes 11:28

11:28 And when she had said this, Martha ¹³  went and called her sister Mary, saying privately, ¹⁴  “The Teacher is here and is asking for you.” ¹⁵ 

Yohanes 11:31

11:31 Then the people ¹⁶  who were with Mary ¹⁷  in the house consoling her saw her ¹⁸  get up quickly and go out. They followed her, because they thought she was going to the tomb to weep ¹⁹  there.

Yohanes 12:3

12:3 Then Mary took three quarters of a pound ²⁰  of expensive aromatic oil from pure nard ²¹  and anointed the feet of Jesus. She ²²  then wiped his feet dry with her hair. (Now the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfumed oil.) ²³ 

Yohanes 16:21

16:21 When a woman gives birth, she has distress ²⁴  because her time ²⁵  has come, but when her child is born, she no longer remembers the suffering because of her joy that a human being ²⁶  has been born into the world. ²⁷ 

[4:27]  ¹ tn Or “his disciples returned”; Grk “came” (“back” is supplied in keeping with English usage). Because of the length of the Greek sentence it is better to divide here and begin a new English sentence, leaving the καί (kai) before ἐθαύμαζον (eqaumazon) untranslated.

[4:27]  ² tn BDAG 444 s.v. θαυμάζω 1.a.γ has “be surprised that” followed by indirect discourse. The context calls for a slightly stronger wording.

[4:27]  ³ tn The ὅτι (Joti) could also be translated as declarative (“that he had been speaking with a woman”) but since this would probably require translating the imperfect verb as a past perfect (which is normal after a declarative ὅτι), it is preferable to take this ὅτι as causal.

[4:27]  ⁴ tn Grk “seek.” See John 4:23.

[4:27]  sn The question “What do you want?” is John’s editorial comment (for no one in the text was asking it). The author is making a literary link with Jesus’ statement in v. 23: It is evident that, in spite of what the disciples may have been thinking, what Jesus was seeking is what the Father was seeking, that is to say, someone to worship him.

[4:28]  ⁵ tn The term ἄνθρωποι (anqrwpoi) used here can mean either “people” (when used generically) or “men” (though there is a more specific term in Greek for adult males, ανήρ [anhr]). Thus the woman could have been speaking either (1) to all the people or (2) to the male leaders of the city as their representatives. However, most recent English translations regard the former as more likely and render the word “people” here.

[11:1]  ⁶ tn Grk “from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.”

[11:2]  ⁷ tn Or “perfume,” “ointment.”

[11:2]  ⁸ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author. It is a bit surprising that the author here identifies Mary as the one who anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and wiped his feet dry with her hair, since this event is not mentioned until later, in 12:3. Many see this “proleptic” reference as an indication that the author expected his readers to be familiar with the story already, and go on to assume that in general the author in writing the Fourth Gospel assumed his readers were familiar with the other three gospels. Whether the author assumed actual familiarity with the synoptic gospels or not, it is probable that he did assume some familiarity with Mary’s anointing activity.

[11:4]  ⁹ tn Grk “This sickness is not to death.”

[11:4]  sn Jesus plainly stated the purpose of Lazarus’ sickness in the plan of God: The end of the matter would not be death, but the glorification of the Son. Johannine double-meanings abound here: Even though death would not be the end of the matter, Lazarus is going to die; and ultimately his death and resurrection would lead to the death and resurrection of the Son of God (11:45-53). Furthermore, the glorification of the Son is not praise that comes to him for the miracle, but his death, resurrection, and return to the Father which the miracle precipitates (note the response of the Jewish authorities in 11:47-53).

[11:4]  ¹⁰ tn Or “to God’s praise.”

[11:4]  ¹¹ sn So that the Son of God may be glorified through it. These statements are highly ironic: For Lazarus, the sickness did not end in his death, because he was restored to life. But for Jesus himself, the miraculous sign he performed led to his own death, because it confirmed the authorities in their plan to kill Jesus (11:47-53). In the Gospel of John, Jesus’ death is consistently portrayed as his ‘glorification’ through which he accomplishes his return to the Father.

[11:5]  ¹² sn This is a parenthetical note by the author. It was necessary for the author to reaffirm Jesus’ love for Martha and her sister and Lazarus here because Jesus’ actions in the following verse appear to be contradictory.

[11:28]  ¹³ tn Grk “she”; the referent (Martha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:28]  ¹⁴ tn Or “in secret” (as opposed to publicly, so that the other mourners did not hear).

[11:28]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “is calling you.”

[11:31]  ¹⁶ tn Or “the Judeans”; Grk “the Jews.” Here the phrase refers to the friends, acquaintances, and relatives of Lazarus or his sisters who had come to mourn, since the Jewish religious authorities are specifically mentioned as a separate group in John 11:46-47. See also the notes on the phrase “the Jewish leaders” in v. 8 and “the Jewish people of the region” in v. 19.

[11:31]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “her”; the referent (Mary) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:31]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “Mary”; the proper name (Mary) has been replaced with the pronoun (her) in keeping with conventional English style, to avoid repetition.

[11:31]  ¹⁹ tn Or “to mourn” (referring to the loud wailing or crying typical of public mourning in that culture).

[12:3]  ²⁰ tn Or “half a liter”; Grk “a pound” (that is, a Roman pound, about 325 grams or 12 ounces).

[12:3]  ²¹ tn Μύρον (muron) was usually made of myrrh (from which the English word is derived) but here it is used in the sense of ointment or perfumed oil (L&N 6.205). The adjective πιστικῆς (pistikh") is difficult with regard to its exact meaning; some have taken it to derive from πίστις (pistis) and relate to the purity of the oil of nard. More probably it is something like a brand name, “pistic nard,” the exact significance of which has not been discovered.

[12:3]  sn Nard or spikenard is a fragrant oil from the root and spike of the nard plant of northern India. This aromatic oil, if made of something like nard, would have been extremely expensive, costing up to a year’s pay for an average laborer.

[12:3]  ²² tn Grk “And she.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[12:3]  ²³ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author. With a note characteristic of someone who was there and remembered, the author adds that the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfumed oil. In the later rabbinic literature, Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7.1.1 states “The fragrance of good oil is diffused from the bedroom to the dining hall, but a good name is diffused from one end of the world to the other.” If such a saying was known in the 1st century, this might be the author’s way of indicating that Mary’s act of devotion would be spoken of throughout the entire world (compare the comment in Mark 14:9).

[16:21]  ²⁴ sn The same word translated distress here has been translated sadness in the previous verse (a wordplay that is not exactly reproducible in English).

[16:21]  ²⁵ tn Grk “her hour.”

[16:21]  ²⁶ tn Grk “that a man” (but in a generic sense, referring to a human being).

[16:21]  ²⁷ sn Jesus now compares the situation of the disciples to a woman in childbirth. Just as the woman in the delivery of her child experiences real pain and anguish (has distress), so the disciples will also undergo real anguish at the crucifixion of Jesus. But once the child has been born, the mother’s anguish is turned into joy, and she forgets the past suffering. The same will be true of the disciples, who after Jesus’ resurrection and reappearance to them will forget the anguish they suffered at his death on account of their joy.